Creation Science Rebuttals -

Stratigraphy
and the Young Earth Global Flood Model - Part 3

When we go further up the geologic column from the
rock layers of the Grand Canyon, we have even stronger evidence against the
young earth creation science flood model. First, I'll provide a
listing of the next rock layers stratigraphically above the Grand Canyon.
You may be saying, "But there are no rocks above the Grand Canyon." An
explanation is in order first.

In the area of the Grand Canyon, there used to be
two more rock layers, which are now eroded away from the Canyon area.
However, these rock layers still exist away from the canyon. If you
will recall, the topmost rock layer at the canyon is the Kaibab Limestone.
As you travel away from the canyon, you will come across a layer of rock on
top of the Kaibab. This rock layer is the Moenkopi. A little
further, and you come across the Chinle. These layers are now eroded
away from the Grand Canyon, but since they exist a short distance away, and
on top of the Kaibab, we know they were deposited after the Kaibab. If
you continue away from the Grand Canyon, you will come across layer after
layer, several thousand more feet of sediment, all of which is younger in
age than the Grand Canyon rocks. Therefore, these layers are said to
be stratigraphically above the Grand Canyon rocks.

Sometimes rock layers hundreds of feet thick may be
in one location, but not in others. To simplify our discussion, we
will move from the Grand Canyon to the geology of Zion National Park.
The rock layers at Zion are as indicated in the graphic, and comprise about
6,000 feet of deposition.

Graphic courtesy of the US. Geological Survey

Discussion

The lowermost formations, the Toroweap and Kaibab,
are the two top-most layers at the Grand Canyon. Thier presence at
Zion National Park provides a reference point for our continued progress up
the stratigraphic column.

The Moenkopi Formation

This 230 million year old formation contains
mudstones, limestones, sandstones, shales, and siltstones, and gypsum.
This formation reaches thicknesses of 1,800 feet, and is comprised thousands
of these alternating layers, clearly indicating a shallow, fluctuating
shoreline. It is unclear how young earth creationists would fit it in
their model, given the clear evidence in the middle of the flood of
thousands of advances and retreats of the shoreline. It provides
clear testimony against the young earth flood model.

Chinle Formation

This interesting rock layer contains shale, gypsum,
limestone, sandstone, and many important minerals such as iron, magesium,
and uranium ore. There are also layers of volcanic ash, and petrified
wood and fossils are plentiful (this is the formation at the Petrified
Forest National Park). It is about 550 feet thick. The gypsum
formed from lagoon deposits. Given the worldwide flood model of young
earth creation science, there should be no lagoons. Again, we have
many alternating layers of sand, silt, and limestone, providing proof of an
advancing and retreating shoreline, which again is inexplicable within the
context of the young earth flood model. Some sources say
this is the first layer with trace fossils for dinosaurs.

Moenave Formation

Early Jurassic uplift was accompanied by deposition of the Moenave
Formation. The oldest beds of this formation belong to the reddish,
slope-forming thin beds of siltstone interbedded with mudstone and fine
sandstone of its Dinosaur Canyon Member, 140 to 375 feet thick (43 to 114
m), which was probably laid down in streams, ponds and large lakes (evidence
for this is in cross-bedding of the sediments and large numbers of fish
fossils).

Pale reddish-brown and 75 to 150 feet thick (23 to 46 m), the cliff-forming
Springdale Sandstone is the upper member of the Moenave. It was deposited in
swifter, larger, and more voluminous streams than the older Dinosaur Canyon
Member. Fossils of large sturgeon-like freshwater fish have been found in
the beds of the Springdale Sandstone. The next member in the Moenave
Formation is the thin-bedded Whitmore Point, which is made of mudstone and
shale. The lower red cliffs seen from the Zion Human History Museum (until
2000 the Zion Canyon Visitor Center) are good, easy to see examples of this
formation.1

You may have noticed key words, such as streams,
ponds, and large lakes, all features that should not be present on a globe
full of water. Again we have interbedded siltstone, mudstone, and
sandstone, indications of fluctuations in shoreline. It clearly does
not fit the young earth model.

Kayenta Formation

At 200 to 600 feet thick (60 to 180 m), the Kayenta
Formation's sand and silt were laid down in early Jurassic time in
slower-moving, intermittent streambeds in a semiarid to tropical
environment. Fossilized dinosaur footprints from sauropods have been found
up the Left Fork of North Creek in this formation. Today the Kayenta is a
red and mauve rocky slope-former made of sandstone, shale, and siltstone
that can be seen throughout Zion Canyon.1
Here we have clear evidence of streambeds, which
contradicts the young earth model. Of the greatest interest here,
however, is the first trace of dinosaurs (tracks). We are now about
8,000 feet up the stratigraphic column from where the flood started (the
rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and we suddenly have sauropod
dinosaurs walking around...in the middle of Noah's Flood! More on this
later when we discuss the Morrison Formation.

Navajo Sandstone

Approximately 190 to 136 million years ago in the
Jurassic the Colorado Plateau area's climate increasingly became arid until
150,000 square miles (388,000 km²) of western North America became a huge
desert, not unlike the modern Sahara. For perhaps 10 million years sometime
around 175 million years ago sand dunes accumulated, reaching their greatest
thickness in the Zion Canyon area; about 2200 feet (670 meters) at the
Temple of Sinawava in Zion Canyon.
Most of the sand, made of 98% translucent,
rounded-grain quartz, was transported from coastal sand dunes to the west
(what is now central Nevada). Today the Navajo Sandstone is a geographically
widespread pale tan to red cliff and monolith former with very obvious sand
dune cross-bedding patterns. Typically the lower part of this remarkably
homogeneous formation is reddish from iron oxide that percolated from the
overlaying iron-rich Temple Cap formation while the upper part of the
formation is a pale tan to nearly white color. The other component of the
Navajo's weak cement matrix is calcium carbonate, but the resulting
sandstone is friable (crumbles easily) and very porous. Cross-bedding is
especially evident in the eastern part of the park where Jurassic wind
directions changed often. The crosshatched appearance of Checkerboard Mesa
is a good example.1
The Navajo is one of my favorite sandstones.
Since it is desert in origin, and their could not possibly be a wind-blown
desert in the middle of Noah's Flood, it provides solid evidence against the
young earth global flood model.

Temple
Cap Formation (Middle Jurassic)

In early Mid Jurassic time streams loaded with iron-oxide-rich mud flooded
and partially leveled the sand dunes, creating the Temple Cap Formation.
Thin beds of clay and silt mark the end of this formation as desert
conditions briefly returned to the area. The most prominent outcrops of this
formation make up the capstones of East Temple and West Temple in Zion
Canyon. Rain dissolves some of the iron oxide and thus streaks Zion's cliffs
red (the red streak seen on the Alter of Sacrifice is a famous example).
Temple Cap iron oxide is also the source of the red-orange color of much the
lower half of the Navajo Formation.1

Once again, we have terrestrial streams and desert sand dunes, clear
evidence against Noah's Flood.

In case you may be thinking that the flood should be over now, and these
were deposited after the flood...all the mammal fossils, and almost all the
dinosaur fossils are located above this rock layer, thus negating this as
the endpoint of the flood.

Carmel
Formation

Warm, shallow sea started to advance into the region (transgress) 150
million years ago, finishing the job of flattening the sand dunes.
Sedimentation beds one to four feet thick (30 to 120 cm) of limy ooze with
some sand and fossils occurred from Mid to Late Triassic time. Some
calcareous silt peculated down into the buried sand dunes (carrying red
oxides with it) and eventually cemented them into the sandstone of the
Navajo Formation. The limy ooze above would later lithify into the hard and
compact limestone of the Carmel Formation, 200 to 300 feet thick (60 to 90
m), which is notably exposed on Horse Ranch Mountain in the Kolob Canyons
section of the park and near Mt. Carmel Junction east of the park.1

Unconformity

A gap in the geologic record, an unconformity, follows
the Carmel Limestone. Other formations totaling 2,800 feet (850 m) thick may
have been deposited in the region during Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous
only to be uplifted and entirely removed by erosion.1

Dakota
Formation

This formation consists of a basal conglomerate and fossil-rich sandstone
and was laid down during the Cretaceous period. Although this is the
top layer of rock at Zion National Park, the story does not end there.
As you go north, other layers come into play, the most important one being
the Morrison Formation, which is actually under (older) than the Dakota.

Conclusion

In this section, we have witnessed many rock layers with clear evidence of
repeatedly advancing and retreating shorelines, terrestrial streams, and
even a desert formed sandstone. According to the young earth creation
science model for the flood, we should have one big ball of water, with no
landforms exposed. Clearly the young earth model cannot answer these
problems.

If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision
for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to
what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the
inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while
still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we
have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in
this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If
you are a young-earth creationism believer,
click here.